On February 12, I had the pleasure of running an iPad training session for 12-13 year-old French-speaking students from Ontario, Canada.
The challenge was to create a media image - a poster raising awareness of endangered animal species. The poster had to be both eye-catching and compelling.
We had fun working with the Canva application, which gave us access to a wide range of creative design tools.
First, we looked at different environmental posters for inspiration, then asked ourselves what makes a good poster.
Then we asked ourselves what makes a good poster. Next, we brainstormed on the animal we wanted to protect, and came up with a short, evocative slogan.
Then we set to work taking a photo of our hands. In this respect, we exploited the symbol of heart-shaped hands, very present in young people's digital culture.
After importing our photo into Canva, we created an awareness poster around the chosen animal. To add an extra challenge, a particular word was worked with frame letters filled with a landscape that follows from one letter to the next.
The poster was then set in motion and exported in an animated GIF format to be e-mailed or messaged to parents.
The result was very heartfelt and engaging. Parents will surely be convinced to take care of these animals and their natural environment!
All in all, we learned a lot. Through the combination of image, text and movement, the students were led to create a multimodal production.
As I wrote in a previous post, multimodal media literacy is now an essential learning skill, and one that is greatly facilitated by the ease with which iPads can handle all these elements.
In this project, creativity was stimulated by the constraint inherent in the designer's posture, i.e. taking into account the clarity of the message and clearly defining the recipients.
Finally, the students were able to become more aware of the fragility of animal species and their environments, while taking a stand to act in this regard.
Digital technology, creativity and environmental awareness - what great ingredients for concocting a foolproof recipe for becoming sensitive and committed global citizens!
If you'd like to experience this activity in your own environment, here's the teaching sheet (in French)
Happy creating!
March 17, 2025
Thank you! A very important topic taught in a very creative way - one that students (and their parents) are sure to remember.
I love digital poster making and I often work with historic posters from the Library of Congress adding animation or sound. Here is one I did on a similar topic.
For this I used Keynote Drawing and a Keynote image animation + sound. The original poster is from the Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project, [between 1936 and 1940]. But the message, and the messages created with your students posters are all relevant today. Thanks for the details and sharing the student process. Love the heart hands! ❤️
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